Solar manufacturing plant is headed for Brooks City-Base

Updated 10:53 am, Thursday, December 20, 2012

Mayor Julián Castro speaks as OCI Solar Power and Nexolon are presented as the choices to bring a solar power plant to San Antonio.

Mayor Julián Castro speaks as OCI Solar Power and Nexolon are presented as the choices to bring a solar power plant to San Antonio.

Photo: TOM REEL, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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State Rep. Joaquín Castro (right) talks with his brother, San Antono Mayor Julián Castro as CPS announces OCI Solar Power as the choice to bring a 400 megawatt solar power plant to San Antonio at a LaVillita Assembly Hall event on January 11, 2012.

State Rep. Joaquín Castro (right) talks with his brother, San Antono Mayor Julián Castro as CPS announces OCI Solar Power as the choice to bring a 400 megawatt solar power plant to San Antonio at a LaVillita

Blue Wing Solar Farm near the intersection of IH-37 and U.S. 181 has stationary panels that do not follow the sun. OCI Solar Power has not determined whether the 50 megawatts solar facility that is coming to San Antonio, via a contract between CPS Energy and OCI, will have stationary panels or tracking panels that follow the sun.

Blue Wing Solar Farm near the intersection of IH-37 and U.S. 181 has stationary panels that do not follow the sun. OCI Solar Power has not determined whether the 50 megawatts solar facility that is coming to

South Korean solar manufacturing company Nexolon America is headed for Brooks City-Base.

City Council passed four ordinances Thursday to usher Nexolon America — a subsidiary of Nexolon Co. Ltd., a global leader in solar-panel manufacturing based in Seoul, South Korea — into the Brooks City-Base Campus.

The manufacturing headquarters location will bring 404 new jobs to Brooks, along with funding from the city and CPS Energy to build infrastructure to further entice businesses to locate at the former Air Force base.

A 400-megawatt solar energy project agreement signed in July between OCI Solar Power — a green energy and chemical company also located in Seoul — and CPS Energy required OCI to establish a manufacturing plant in the city.

Roland Lozano, Brooks Development Authority interim president, said bringing Nexolon to the Brooks City-Base campus could jumpstart a broader economic development project that could see multi-family housing and retail spring up in the area.

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“You'll have a major manufacturing company here,” Lozano said. “The key is the jobs. Those types of jobs are what make those types of developments possible.

The ordinances outline an incentives package constructed through collaboration between the city and the Brooks Development Authority.

The package includes the designation of Brooks City-Base as a reinvestment zone, approval of a 10-year, 100 percent ad valorem tax abatement on Nexolon's property, approval of a $400,000 Economic Development Program grant agreement with Nexolon, and a waiver of SAWS impact fees up to $500,000, subject to Nexolon creating 404 jobs and investing some $115 million at Brooks City-Base.

The final measure includes a commitment from the city to use its “best efforts” to provide $12 million in future funding for infrastructure improvements at Brooks.

Nexolon has also agreed to give $500,000 to Alamo Colleges to be used for manufacturing programs.

The first three ordinances passed unanimously. The final — which requires $12 million in funding — was met with contention from District 8 Councilman Reed Williams, District 9 Councilwoman Elisa Chan and District 10 Councilman Carlton Soules, who all voted against it.

They voiced concerns Brooks would not receive the adequate compensation for the 86-acre property, and that the $12 million in infrastructure funding might not benefit much of the area surrounding Nexolon's headquarters.

Nexolon will move into an 86-acre plot at Brooks valued at $17 million.

The company will pay $5 million dollars up front, and have the option to obtain ownership of the property anytime within a ten year period.

The additional $12 million in property value will come from a combination of earnings from CPS and a future (possibly 2017) bond.

District 3 Councilwoman Leticia Ozuna, who voted in favor of all four measures, said the project — which will diversify the city's energy portfolio — is a long-term investment, and a good one.

“Opportunities like this are mostly about the spillover effects,” she said. “We will have 400 employees looking for places to go to lunch, places to live within a commutable distance and run errands. That will be a huge part of the Southside economy.”

Ozuna explained the $500,000 investment Nexolon will make to Alamo Colleges will help ensure that the South Side's work force has access to training to get these new jobs, which offer livable wages and higher.

“This facility had the potential we all knew existed, but it has been hard to leverage that potential,” she said. “This helps us bridge that gap.”

Ozuna likened the city's acquisition of Brooks to inheriting an unfinished house.

“We couldn't just leave it unfinished,” she said. “In this economy, especially, in a place where people have become accustomed to jobs moving elsewhere, we are seeing foreign investment take a risk here. It shows that we are worthy of that risk.”